Module II Part I: The Search

Problem and Index
My problem was not necessary a clinical problem. But I was interested in a current hot topic in healthcare. My question was this: Does the current literature show positive quality outcomes usisng a pay-for-performance model? Although this questions is very amenable to RCT and other research methodologies, I thought that PubMed might not be the only source for good information, so I also searched in EBSCO as well, as there are other resources beyond medical journals.

Did Index Facilitate or Impede Search?
I don't think the specific index impeded my search as much as I impeded my search. I watched the tutorial for PubMed which was very helpful. I loved learning how to use the Advanced Search and MeSH headings which I never really understood before. I am also starting to get the hand of the Boolean operators AND, OR. The tutorial was useful when using quantifiers or identifiers in the search such as medications (beta blockers, aspirin), but did not seem applicable in my particular search. I played around with various search strategies, and the one that yielded the best return used the boolean operator AND. I typed in pay AND performance AND healthcare. In the EBSCO search, this gave me articles from USA Today, NYTimes, etc. Although those articles would not be appropriate for a scholarly article, it was interesting that I had access to them and could read them to further understand the scope of the issue.

Time?
My search was time consuming because I am still getting the hang of it. I understand how to do a search, but for me the difficulty is knowing the right wording to type in the search bar. I guess that is where MeSH functions can help.

Barriers?
For a clinician who does not use the database regularly or who has not been trained in all of its advanced features and functions would find this very cumbersome. It is much easier to do a quick Google search. And yet, as Jeanne LeBar states in the tutorial Google Scholar lacks reliable search functions, might not be up to date and lacks controlled vocabulary.